No portion of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including photocopying, or by any means electronic or mechanical, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review as permitted by law, without the express permission of the publisher and/or the copyright holder(s). Reproduction for sale or resale, or for any other commercial purpose, is expressly prohibited except for permissions granted under specific written licenses, in any, jointly issued by the copyright holders.


Thank you for choosing this Reading Champs Instructional Handbook (this publication). The information contained within this and other publications within this series is intended to provide a schema for sequential development of the basic skills necessary to succeed in learning to read--at any age. Each individual handbook presents a highly-focused view on a specific topic.

With that being said, let us state clearly that this publication is copyrighted under U.S. Title 17 and ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. This means you may not copy this publication, or any part thereof, for any reason other than to print ONE authorized copy for your personal use. You may not sell or give away a copy of this publication. Further, you are hereby noticed that anyone violating the terms of this Copyright and Notice is in violation of United States Federal Statutes and may be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information regarding the subject matter covered. It is provided with the understanding that the author is not engaged in rendering legal, financial, investment, or other licensed or regulated professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is desired, the services of a competent professional should be sought. The information in this book is intended only for educational purposes.

PUBLISHED UNDER LICENSE BY:

IVE-Focus Text Publishers
a Division of The IVE League, Incorporated
P. O. Box 621706
Orangevale, CA 95662-1706
Tel: (916) 735-9988

The good reader matches reading skills, purpose, and rate to read fluently. Intonation, phrasing, and emotion-whether reading aloud or internally--are also important considerations as are instantaneous cues from language and meaning systems. Improvement in the physical aspects, such as rate, rhythm, shortening time of each eye stop, and increasing the breadth of vision span are all areas with which students might wish to improve.

Students who read word-for-word are focused on letters whereas fluent readers recognize whole words, phrases, or even (at advanced levels) sentences--all of which increase reading speed (rate).

Fluency development begins with flexibility of purpose, then moves toward focusing on the mechanical. Encourage more rapid reading by first quickening the fixation and then widen the visual span. At the same time, work to eliminate back-skipping (regression) as this both slows the reading rate and impedes comprehension. One possible method to accomplish this is using a metronome or a lightly tapping a pencil--to set a rate/rhythm of reading--and gradually increase the rate. This activity can be especially effective when working with both tactile-kinesthetic, and musical-dominant learners.

In this Mini-lesson, we will work with two major learning elements:

CSML-048 / 090622

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Rita M. Wirtz, M.A. -- All Rights Reserved